The Top 100 is pretty light on adaptations of books. This is interesting due to the heritage film industry that does crank them out as the classier side of film culture. Well you will be pleased to hear that Time Regained is indeed an adaptation. Of Proust’s Rememberance Of Things Past. You will be disappointed to hear however that it does not come with scratch and sniff cards.
The conundrum at the heart of Time Regained is merely a second hand extension of the problem with Proust’s original. An attempt to put into novel form the failings and capriciousness of memory. Smells, tastes send Proust off into epicurean discourse, sidetracking any narrative of such in an attempt to emulate the weird workings of the mind. That no-one pointed at Proust and laughed too loudly suggests that his account has some analogy to certain experiences. But its a slog, and I think we are all glad that we are not quite a scatterbrained.
The film tries the dsame as the book, in a collage mode. Scenes from childhood merge into adulthood scenes, we are usually priviliged to find out what sends the narrator off on yet another flight of fancy. An American experiment like this may well soar off at great speed, but the nice thing about Time Regained is how much time it takes. The memories are savoured, in all their intimate and embarressing details. Just shy of three hours seems a long time to see a pretty self indulgent film about next to nothing. But sometimes it is nice to get into someone elses head, even if via a third hand route which operates wholly differently to your own memory. It just could have done with a scratch and sniff card that’s all.